Famitsu, the Japanese gaming magazine that some people hail as perfect, has reviewed Metal Slug 3d and given it sevens across the board. Now, I had no faith in this whatsoever, but now I can admit I’m a little curious. It’ll have to be way beyond mediocre for me to be satisfied in any way, of course.

Source: [url=http://arstechnica.com/journals/thumbs.ars/2006/6/26/4444]ArsTechnica[/url]

I’m not sure if this qualifies in any way as “news,” but apparently there are still plenty of geeks out there who still have girl issues. [url=http://images2.ggl.com/articles/3400/8.jpg]Here’s[/url] an article where girls complain about this phenomenon. I have mixed feelings about the article, because while we’ve heard it before and it’s akin to complaining that hedgehogs are all spiny, I sure do hate seeing idiots ruin the game for everyone. Thank the lord there are an increasing number of tools for dealing with these tools.

Source: [url=http://www.kotaku.com/gaming/girls/why-do-gaming-guys-hate-gaming-girls-183285.php]Kotaku[/url]

I just got my Xbox 360, and mostly I am interested in the downloadable games over everything else. Well, it looks like some [url=http://grev.co.jp/ronde360/about.html]sweet quasi 2d giant robot action[/url] may be heading the way of Xbox Live soon. I can’t tell you anything about it, but it looks gorgeous.

I do love giant robots.

Source: [url=http://www.kotaku.com/gaming/xbox-360/senko-no-ronde-for-xbox-360-site-love-183173.php]Kotaku[/url]

In what I hope will be a regular news feature here, I’m going to take a look at a few of the new releases for next week.

[b]Titan Quest – PC[/b]
This comes at the top of my list. I’ve been playing with the demo for this on outside recommendation, and it looks like it will be a huge gaping hole in my schedule. It out Diablos Diablo in every respect: better skill trees, less micromanagement, less generic setting, and it doesn’t look 10 years old. I can safely say that if the demo is anything to go by, this is a good contender for game of the year.

[b]Over G Fighters – Xbox 360[/b]
Look, man, I don’t know anything about this game, but that name is [i]terrible[/i]!

[b]Pirates of the Carribean – Various[/b]
This is actually a grouping of several games using that license. I will assume that they are all terrible until I hear otherwise. Expect mediocre platforming fun with a license that works better in the theatre. With Keira Knightley…mmmmmm… (and for you ladies, Orlando Bloom)

[b]Micro Machines v4 – PS2, PSP[/b]
This has some promise. Micro Machines was always a classic party game series. We can only hope this one returns the series to its former glory, and that you can all rub it in your roomate’s face when your tiny car dominates the pool table.

[b]Hard Truck Apocalypse – PC[/b]
The idea of a post apocalypse trucking game is awesome. The idea of made for bargain bin PC games is usually not. I’m not gonna touch this one, but I will imagine what it could have been under a good development team for the rest of the day.

OK, that’s it for today. Obviously I can’t hit every game, so if I missed your favorite dirtbike game, or you are a huge fan of Juiced and Puffy AmiYumi, I’m sorry. Feel free to discuss those things in the comments.